This month we look at how each organ is assigned a set 'relationships'. Each organ has a time of day when it functions optimally, and a season of the year when it is most affected by the environment. This means that if a problem occurs during those hours or during that season, it will alert you to an imbalance that you can address before it becomes serious - don't worry - we'll be giving some actual examples in a bit.
There are specific emotions, colors, times, body parts and foods (as well as others) for each organ. Below is a chart that will help you understand.
Elements/Organs and their relationships
Element | Sound | Emotion | Climate | Season | Time | Odor | Food | Body Part | Secretion | Body Part |
| FIREHeart Small intestine | laugh | joy | heat | summer | 11am-3pm | scorched | millet, mutton, plum | ears | perspiration | tongue |
| EARTHSpleen-Pancreas Stomach | song | sympathy | humid | late summer | 7am-11am | sickly sweet | rice, millet, beef, apricot | mouth | saliva | muscles |
| METALLung Large Intestine | weeping | grief | dry | autumn | 3am-7am | rotten | rice, chestnuts | nose | mucous | skin |
| WATER Kidney Bladder | groaning | fear | cold | winter | 3pm-7pm | putrid | barley, beans, peas, pork | ears | saliva | bones, teeth, urinary |
| WOOD Liver Gall Bladder | shout | anger | windy | spring | 11pm-3am | rancid | wheat, chicken, peach | eyes | tears | tendons, ligaments, nails, genitals |
OK - now let's look at a real situation - see if you can tell which element is out of balance.
Fido is a dog with itchy red eyes (always worse in the spring), he barks loudly and lunges at the mailman angrily, his skin has rancid odor, he loves a treat of your leftover pasta and he wakes up scratching at 1 am. Lots of clues here - look at the chart.
Well... did you guess which element is out of balance? If you guessed Wood, very good!! This is a liver problem - the dog is displaying all the symptoms of wood imbalance. Looking at the 'totality' of the symptoms we would address the liver through diet and pressing some of the liver points on his body (more of this later) - diet and acupressure moves the 'stuck' energy and gets it flowing again. The goal here is to ward off trouble by observing symptoms and then making corrections when it's easy to do. If we took Fido to the vet, nothing would show up on any 'tests' - but we all know instinctively that something is out of balance.
One more example (not as many clues this time!) - Molly vomits after breakfast, but not after dinner.
In this case the time is the main clue - consult the chart and see what you think. Earth?? Right! We would look at the spleen/pancreas/stomach. Stay with us - more and more will come together.
In our next installment we will look at the FIVE CONSTITUTIONS. Building on the relationships we will see certain 'types' emerge and the imbalances that normally go with each constitution.
